Dawn of Monsters
by SketchLex
Summary: Pokemon aren't for kids; in a world of malice and the ever-destructive nature of the human race, 5 friends fight to keep the peace with the help of their battling partners. ::A Pokemon/Deviants crossover::
1. Thief

**Thief**

Katy heaved a long sigh after stretching and eliciting a couple pops from her spine. Sleeping on the ground every night was getting the best of her. She moaned as she dug in her bag to put her trainer's brace on and tapped the touch screen to make it light up. The number at the bottom read 246. "Ugh. We've godda get some more Points today, Banksy. I barely have enough to heal all you guys one more time."

Banksy, Katy's plump Raichu, rubbed her eyes and tilted her head. "Wai?"

"I'd rather not transfer any of the money we've made to Trainer Points. Not unless we absolutely have to, okay?" She looked down at her orange friend and pet her velvety head. Banksy happily leaned into the love, her eyes squinting up in delight. "Eeee."

"Come on. Let's go find a battle and we'll all have a nice breakfast." Katy stood up and dug in her bag for the Poké Ball with a decal of a fossilized skull on it. She pressed the button in the center and tossed it up. With a crisp pop, the Ball opened and a white light zapped out of it and to the ground, forming a large mass until the light broke away. A hefty Dragonite uncurled to its full height and shook itself like a dog that just got out of a bath. "Morning, Bentley! Ready to look for some trainers?"

"Rowr," Bentley replied with an enthusiastic flap of his large wings. He leaned down and Katy climbed into the saddle strapped around his chest and on his back. Banksy hopped up gracefully and took her rightful place in front of her trainer in the saddle. "Eeroooh!" Bentley took off through the grass, running on his hind legs and flapping his wings. Katy did her best to keep her hair out of her face—she'd forgotten to put on her headband. Soon Bentley was off the ground and in the air. He was a little wobbly, and it used to concern Katy, but he had yet to crash or drop her, so she just held on tight. And maybe Banksy wasn't entirely confident Bentley wouldn't make a mistake, as she tensed into a tight ball of fuzz with a clawed, death-grip on the saddle and her long tail wrapped around the straps as tightly as it could be.

It wasn't long before they were well over the canopy of trees, scarcely dotted here and there. Katy missed the forest; that was her favorite environment to spend time in. Not always because of the Pokémon found in it, but how it made her feel, a feeling she had yet to be able to describe. But today, it was better this way; it made for easy spotting of trainers from above. And in no time, she found a traveler sporting a backpack and hat. "There we go, Bentley! Head down to that person—but don't scare them, okay?"

"Aroo." Bentley dipped and glided closer to the ground. He dodged a couple trees before coming to the grass and beating his wings at an angle appropriate for landing. The trainer stopped walking when the Dragonite leaned over and looked over with his rider, who was waving happily.

"Hey, there! You care for a battle?"

The boy was younger, probably eighteen, maybe younger than that. But he was tall and gangly. He eyed Bentley with hesitation. "My Pokémon isn't very strong. I only have one on me right now."

 _Well, that's not very smart,_ Katy thought to herself. "Ooh. Out here you probably want to keep a full team of six on you—even if they're not too strong. It's just safer." She hopped out of her Dragonite's saddle. "But it's okay. I have a lower level Pokémon with me. If you battle me, I'll heal your partner up when we're done. Yeah?"

"What level?"

"She's twenty-nine. That close enough?" Katy put her hands on her hips, becoming a bit impatient.

"What is it?"

Katy blinked. "Not telling." It was actually rude to ask what Pokémon a trainer had before agreeing to a battle. Was this kid new or something?

The guy sighed. He looked to his trainer's brace and tapped the screen. Upon apparently seeing deplorable numbers like the ones Katy found on her brace, he nodded. "All right." He dug in his pocket.

Katy smiled and stepped back and gave them an appropriate battle space as she went to her bag and dug for the correct Poké Ball. She found the Great Ball with the decal of sagging pants on it. She returned to her position and both trainers stuck out their fists. The two trainer's braces' screens were already lit up with "TRAINER FOUND" and their names. This guy's name was Taron. But his picture didn't look a whole lot like him. Under this information, there were the options "REGISTER", "BATTLE", or "MESSAGE." Both of them tapped the "BATTLE" option on their respective screens. Each brace now said "CHOOSE YOUR POKÉMON."

Taron tossed out a plain, decoration-less Poké Ball. The light that burst out of it gathered and broke away to reveal a fairly large Swadloon. Now Katy's screen lit up with a rotating image of the species of Pokémon and the level number of twenty-one. The numbers at the top flickered a count until two rested at the top of her screen: one number for Reward reading 214 and Loss reading 234. She winced first at how if she lost this battle, she'd only have 12 Trainer Points left and she would _certainly_ have to trade money for Points. But that wasn't likely. She winced for this poor Swadloon that was about to face the unhinged terror that rested inside her hand.

"Let's go, Mozart!" Katy threw the Ball out and it broke in the air. A light travelled down to the grass and a small Scraggy stumbled out of it, tripping over her skin-pants and falling on her face. She then proceeded to make a sound that was supposed to be an angry growl but sounded more like a pathetic gurgle as she struggled to get back on her tiny feet. Mozart the Scraggy now faced her opponent with heated eyes of blood-boiling battle. Both trainers waited for their braces' screens to process, a rolling Poké Ball in the center of the screen until it gently flashed yellow with blinking "BATTLE MODE" now showing at the top.

The second their statuses switched to Battle Mode, the trainers simultaneously hollered out their first attack command. The Scraggy darted forward, holding her skin-pants up and kept her head low as she charged straight for the Swadloon.

"Swoof!" The Swadloon ruffled its leaf-cocoon and tiny razor-sharp foliage spun out and shot toward Mozart.

"Watch out!" Katy called.

"Scree!" Mozart weaved to dodge the leaves, but then lost her momentum and accuracy for the head butt to effectively strike. Swadloon rather effortlessly feinted around her.

"Vine Whip!" Taron shouted.

"Waah," Swadloon's rough vines slipped out from between its leaves and zoomed toward the Scraggy. Mozart squeaked when a vine snapped against her flank and growled when the other wrapped around her waist. Katy didn't have to holler anything; Mozart immediately chomped down on the vine with everything she had. A hissing sound came from the Swadloon and it quickly let go, retracting its vines back to its body. Mozart launched herself at the bug thing and attached herself to its head and began to Bite repeatedly. The Swadloon tried to defend itself with its vines again, but to no avail. Mozart was not about to tolerate actually being attacked in a battle. The leaves were beginning to fall away and crumple under Mozart's teeth.

"Mozart, that's enough now! Dial it back, come on."

With another sharp and defiant Bite, Mozart let go and released a kick that was evidently more powerful that it appeared. Swadloon flipped over on its side and let out a frustrated or otherwise pained cry.

"Come on, get up!" Taron yelled.

The Swadloon awkwardly pushed itself up with the help of its vines, but Mozart just kicked it again. In the face. Which made the bug retreat into its leaf-fortress. The leaves all compressed and shrank around it, turning it into a giant leaf ball. Mozart jumped on it and kept Biting.

"Okay—Mozart, stop."

The Scraggy quit Biting again, but then kicked the leaf ball into a tree. Now began a rather embarrassing display of this lizard chasing and kicking this soccer ball of a Pokémon. And the Swadloon certainly was not listening to its trainer anymore. It was apparent it did not intend to continue fighting this belligerent reptile. And Katy couldn't really blame it. Eventually, Taron growled and called his Pokémon back to its ball. Mozart kicked the space where the Swadloon had just been then fell on her face. She snorted angrily and scrambled back up to her feet.

"She gets… passionate," Katy explained. "Good battle…?"

Taron sighed and watched his trainer's brace. Katy looked to hers as well. Battle Mode switched off and "WIN" flashed green on her screen. She watched her Points and waited for them to start going up.

But they didn't.

"TRANSACTION FAILED" her screen displayed in red letters. "Oh. Um… it says transaction failed. You wanna try it manually?" Katy looked up.

Taron was running in the opposite direction as fast as he could.

"Hey! … HEY!" Katy screamed. She growled out loud and called Mozart back to her ball and mounted Bentley's saddle. "Son of a BITCH! Catch him, Bentley. He's a thief!"

"Aoruhm!" Bentley started running again and took flight, this time at a speed that made Katy's eyes water. She didn't care though. She was going to catch this asshole.


	2. Pretzels and Pineapples

**Pretzels and Pineapples**

Taron ran through the more thickly gathered trees toward the nearest Pokémon Center, which happened to only be another football field away. Bentley was forced to slow down to his speed to keep an eye on him; the trees were too dense for him to swoop down. If he could, Katy would have commanded it. She didn't care about not scaring him anymore. Or not hurting him for that matter.

The thief ran inside the Pokémon Center, still as fast as he could go. How stupid was he? Katy jumped off when they were close enough to the ground and darted for the door. She bumped harshly into a man who was coming out and offered a rushed "'Scuse me!" as she kept going.

The Pokémon Center was fairly busy, even out in this location that was a good ways off from the nearest road or trail. She quickly scanned over the people inside before shouting to acquire the attention of everyone inside. "A boy just ran in here, just now. Where did he go? He stole from me."

Some trainer's Quagsire stared at her with a dumb open mouth and a Staraptor ruffled its feathers unpleasantly. Thankfully a police officer stepped toward her. "Was he tall? Young?"

"Yes! Teenager, gangly—we had a battle, I won, and the Points transaction failed and he took off."

"I saw him make a beeline straight for the bathroom," she said, unsheathing her nightstick. "I'll take care of it, ma'am."

"Thank you, thank you _so_ much," Katy said as the police officer made her way to the bathrooms. Now the trainer stood there awkwardly among the other patrons, who had mostly gone on about their business, with the exception of a couple Pokémon still concerned about her, like the Sligoo who watched her, frozen like a statue. "Sorry," Katy whispered to the sticky thing. It just blinked at her and made some kind of trilling sound.

Soon enough, the police officer returned with the boy in tow by the arm. She didn't have him in cuffs, but she sure had a firm grip. "Do you owe this young lady Trainer Points?" she asked him.

"I guess," he said defensively, as if he had only a small idea of what he did wrong.

"I'm going to need to see some identification." She let go of his arm to allow him to reach into his back pocket and pull out his wallet. He handed over his license, driver's or keeper's, Katy couldn't tell. "Your parents know where you are, Michael?"

"Michael?" Katy said, "His trainer's brace said his name was Taron."

The kid grimaced. Now he knew exactly how much trouble he was in.

"Let's see your brace."

Begrudgingly, the kid tapped the screen of the device on his arm to show his profile to the officer.

The woman looked over it vacantly before she said, "Did you steal this from Taron McCallister?"

"No!" said Michael, "I just found it!"

"Do you understand how serious it is to take and use someone else's trainer's brace as if it's your own?" she asked.

"I didn't take anything! I told you I found it—it was in the garbage!"

"Sir, do you have a keeper's license," the officer went on. The license he showed her must have been his driver's then.

"No," he admitted. Oh hell. Double whammy. Now they had all visitors and staff of the Pokémon Center's attention.

"Do you carry a Pokémon with you right now?"

"Yes," he caved. He must have figured he was past the point of being able to get away with lies. The first smart thing he'd done. He drew the Poké Ball out of his pocket when the officer held her hand out for it. She proceeded to ask to whom the Pokémon belonged, and Michael admitted it was his older brother's. When she announced that she would need to confiscate the creature until it could be returned, Katy spoke up.

"It needs treatment first. Please."

The officer actually smiled at her. "I'll make sure of it. All right, Michael. I say we better head home to Mom and Dad. And, ma'am, what was your name?"

"Katy, officer."

"Katy. Let me register you so I can make sure you get your Points."

The trainer smiled. "Thank you," She stuck her arm out and tapped the screen on her brace. She scrolled through all the trainers in her proximity to the picture that looked like this officer. When "REGISTER" showed up, they both pressed it on their respective screens. Katy thanked her once again before the officer escorted the thief out to her Pokémon that had to be garbed in police department wear. She must have missed it. Honestly, there could have been a shiny Pokémon standing in the middle of the walkway and she would have missed it, so set on catching this guy. Which reminded her of the man she nearly Bulldozed on the way in. Katy went outside, being careful to step around a Sentret that scurried past her feet into the building.

When she saw him, she knew right away he was the man she bumped. He was sitting at a picnic table with an open Tupperware container in front of him, picking at a piece of something in his fingers. Katy noted for a moment that this was a guy that she really didn't want to miss. It might have been the fuzzy Volcarona that was attached to his back, or it might have been his broad shouldered, burly, rugged appearance complete with delightful shaggy dark hair, clean and layered. Katy wasn't the only one that noticed him, apparently, because when she saw him tear a piece off of whatever it was he had in his fingers, he stretched his arm out beside him to her very own Raichu who took it carefully in her tiny clawed paws and began to nibble. At least now Katy had another reason to approach him. "Banksy, don't be filching food off of people!" Katy scolded not too seriously.

"It's okay. I offered," said the man. Now Katy could see he held dried pineapple in his fingers, his container full of it. He held one over his shoulder and his Volcarona's creepy little mouth-fingers took hold and pushed it into its mouth.

"Well, thank you, that was very kind of you." Katy beckoned Bentley over. "That was you I ran into a while ago, wasn't it?"

The man looked up, as if he would actually have to confirm her features to answer her question. "Guess so." He looked back down to his container and found a pretzel for himself.

"I'm really sorry about that," she said, "A kid had just took off after losing a battle and his Points didn't transfer over to me. I was in a hurry to catch him and I wasn't paying attention."

"'S all right."

Katy shifted her weight a little. She wasn't ready to end the conversation. He was older, but he was still very handsome. "Thanks… Yeah, turns out he _stole_ that trainer's brace. Found it in a garbage can somewhere, says him. Taron McCallister is who it really belongs to."

The man looked up. "Taron McCallister?"

"Yeah. Do you know him?"

He didn't answer right away. Instead, he scratched the back of his neck where his Volcarona had been lightly tickling with its mouth. "He found it in a garbage can?"

"Well, that's what he said, but I don't know. Don't think you can trust the kid as far as you could throw him—"

"Where."

Katy blinked. "I don't know. He didn't say, I didn't ask. I just wanted my Points."

The guy rubbed the short scruff on his jaw. "… What's the kid's name who found it?"

"Michael."

"Michael what," he said almost irritably.

Katy became irritable back. Now he wasn't as attractive as he was a moment ago. "I don't _know,_ I didn't _ask._ I just wanted my _Points._ "

He sighed and looked around her. He nodded down the part in the grass where the officer must have taken the boy. "They just leave on that Togekiss?"

"I guess," Katy replied, now answering like he did when the conversation began. But he rubbed his mouth again. She wanted to ask him why he cared so much, but it was apparent that wasn't a question he was going to answer. Instead, she offered the best she could. "Listen: I registered the officer in my brace. I'm sure she'll be trying to find the rightful owner of the trainer's brace and she will know where he found it after she questions him."

He watched her, the Volcarona on his shoulder now pulling tufts of his dark hair into its mouth.

"If you want, I can register you and when she lets me know, I'll let you know."

The man seemed like he really had to consider this for a moment. But finally nodded. "All right. Thank you." When he went to tap his brace's screen, so did Katy. Since he was the closest in proximity to her, his profile was at the top. She tapped his picture, in which he was expectedly not smiling, and pressed "REGISTER." He did the same.

"Okay. Well, I'll be sending you a message later."

"Thanks. I appreciate it." He went back to his pretzels and pineapples.

Katy was going to wave goodbye, but then decided against it. Instead, she mounted Bentley's saddle and waited for Banksy to jump up in front of her, then took to the sky. Along the way to their next destination, she checked the newest profile on her registry list.

William Milord.


	3. Change the Course

**Change the Course**

Katy flew to an outdoor Pokémon Café, the most popular chain restaurant among trainers. She ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit for herself and hot breakfast Poffins for each member of her team. She paid the clerk and thanked them as she took her bag to an open round, stone table, giggling at the trainer who was trying to baby-feed their Solosis that seemed insistent on not trying a new food. "All right, gang, let's eat." Katy tossed out each Ball in her bag and their noses all started working the moment they were in the fresh air, sniffing the scent of their favorite breakfast. "A sour orange cream Poffin for you, Houdini."

Her Zoroark hobbled up on four feet before standing on its hind legs to take the Poffin. He gave a sort of a snicker before sitting on his haunches nearby to feast.

"A bitter dark chocolate Poffin for you, Banksy." Katy handed down the food to her Raichu who stepped up next in line then followed Houdini's lead. "Spicy red pepper and egg for Charlie."

Her tall Charizard waddled forward and carefully took it from her hand in his teeth then stepped out of line with a snort of contentment.

"Another dark chocolate for you, Bentley." She handed the Poffin to the next dragon in line. "And another orange for you, Mozart." Her Scraggy snatched the food and scurried under the table to eat. "And last but not least, a plain ol' biscuit Poffin, Xander's favorite." She smiled and held out the food.

Her Lucario stepped up and took the Poffin in one clawed paw and sniffed it before he took a bite. He made some noise in his throat before sitting down on the stone bench to finish it.

"Eat up, guys." Katy turned to her bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit and happily took a bite. While she ate, she went back to have a look at William Milord's profile on her brace. When she tapped to view more information, under his picture was that triangle symbol. "Hm, he's a Deviant." She would bet Points that he was a fire Deviant since he had a Volcarona. Sometimes she wished she had been a Deviant. Not only could they have Pokémon, but they had powers of their own, too. Many of them would train and battle alongside their Pokémon, have duels for Points just like a regular battle. She'd seen only a few of them. Apparently it wasn't very popular to duel another Deviant for fun. Dude, if she were a Deviant, she'd duel _everyone._ She hoped she would be a Deviant with the acid Ability, the rarest of the five that had been discovered. How cool would that be?

Plus, Pokémon were drawn to them— Pokémon of the same type, that is. Fire drew Fire, water drew Water, ice drew Ice, electric drew Electric… and evidently acid drew Poison. It wasn't the same thing, but tons of acid Deviants had reported Poison Pokémon having an affinity for them. It must be close enough. And those Deviants who had Special Abilities drew the Psychic Pokémon. Katy was so jealous. These Pokémon could sense Deviants, like all these wondrous creatures had a little radar in their heads that alerted them of Deviants and Abilities. And if they had something in common, the Pokémon sometimes sought them out, if not just to get a glimpse of these beings that seemed to be biologically closer to Pokémon than they did human. What Katy would give to have Pokémon flock to her, just because she existed.

She was awakened from her day dreaming to a snort in her hair. Katy turned to see Charlie staring at her expectantly. He had finished his Poffin, and he was ready for another. "Oh, sorry, pal. Here." She reached into the bag and handed him another one of his favorites. "There you go."

This one, he must not have cared to savor, because he gobbled it down straight from her palm and finished it with a few smacks of his lips.

She sighed. "All right, guys. Let's see if we can scrounge up some Points." Katy stood up and prepared her bag.

She was much more choosey about her next opponent. Keeping an eye on her trainer's brace, Katy flew relatively close to the ground to see the profiles that appeared and what they looked like, and what their average loss/reward was. Some trainers had their "BATTLE" option disabled. This was actually fairly common. Lots of trainers didn't care for the confrontation of battling other people and would typically stick to battling wild Pokémon. Katy used to be like that. It took quite a while for her to become aware of her own team's true strength because of how isolated she kept herself.

Since the age of eighteen, all Katy did was train. Starting with Charlie, her first Pokémon given to her after receiving her keeper's license, she spent her days and nights with her beloved Charmander. She'd saved up money her whole life, and with the help of her parents, she eventually accumulated enough to pay for college. But by the time of high school graduation, she'd decided she'd rather spend it her next partner. "Are you sure this is what you really want," her parents asked her a thousand times. When her answer was always the same, she received their blessing and purchased Houdini when he was a rambunctious young Zorua. Between training, leveling up, learning moves, and evolving, with a never-ending goal to get better, Katy had easily overlooked just how strong they'd become. So, she began to battle other trainers and soon had all the Points and money she could hope for as a full-time trainer. She had built an impressive bank account that she only touched to make important purchases, like Bentley when he was a Dratini, and Poké Balls to catch Banksy as a Pichu, Mozart, and Xander when he was a Riolu. Now at the ripe, still-young age of twenty-five, Katy's goals had hardly shifted. Being better than yesterday was all she cared about.

The sun was setting on another full day of battling. Katy could rest easier now with her Trainer Points now up to two thousand sixty-eight. She leaned against Charlie who had already begun to snore and watched the stars peek out into the blackening sky. When her brace lit up, she looked to it to find a message from the officer she had spoken to earlier that morning.

"Here you are, Katy. Thanks for your help."

Her Points went up to two thousand two hundred eighty-two. She smiled and messaged back. "Thank you so much!" Oh, right. William. "Hey, did you find out where he found Taron McCallister's brace?" She waited eagerly for her reply.

"Yes; he said he found it around West Franklin in Bourbonville."

"I hope the brace makes it back to Taron! Thank you, officer!" Katy scrolled through her contacts and tapped William's profile picture, then pressed "MESSAGE." "She said it was found around West Franklin in Bourbonville." Now she waited. When she had finally decided to lean her head back again, her screen lit up. He replied.

"Thanks"

"Sure thing" Katy closed the menu then leaned back and stared at the stars some more. No, it was true. Her path had really not deviated far from getting stronger. She'd seen a ton of places, sights and views that she wouldn't trade for the world. But what had she ever been a part of other than her own little story? Perhaps it was time to change the course. Just to see what happened.

Katy tapped the screen on her brace and went to the map app. She typed in the destination of West Franklin, Bourbonville and saved the route before turning her screen off and leaning back against Charlie again. Now was time for rest. Tomorrow, she had an adventure to begin.


	4. Discovery

**Discovery**

On the dawn of a brisk morning, Katy eagerly woke up and scarfed down a quick breakfast with her team. Today was the day they were doing something different. She must have had some kind of spark about her, because Xander especially was watching her prepare her bag and Bentley's saddle, apparently a little confused as a to what she had to be so excited about. "We're going on an adventure," she responded to Xander's inquiring eyes, "And it's going to be a lot of fun. Are you ready?"

He blinked. "Rurr." Xander disinterestedly looked away to have some more water.

Katy just smiled and shook her head at him as she readied her saddle. Soon enough, everyone had been fed and put back in their spheres except for Bentley. Banksy had opted to stay in her Ball; she wasn't a fan of flying as high as they would be today. Sometimes Katy wasn't a fan of it either as wobbly as Bentley had a tendency to be. But she still preferred to fly with him than Charlie; he was terrifying. Not always with how fast he was, but how he weaved and flipped and dove and spun. Every time she flew with Charlie she saw her life flash before her eyes. He just was not meant to be a ride Pokémon.

Bourbonville was about two hours away by car, so it was likely around that same time to fly with Bentley going at a pace that didn't exhaust him. But Katy could hardly contain herself. She had no idea what was going to happen when she got there. She figured what William Milord would do is look for Taron McCallister. He obviously knew the name. Maybe she could look for him, too. They could be the heroes that found his trainer's brace and return it to him safe and sound. He would be so grateful! Katy had considered a million alternate paths her journey could lead her by the time Bentley arrived at Bourbonville. He landed carefully on the street; it was busy for this time of day, she thought. Lots of people and Pokémon were out and about. It was a nice day, so why not?

Katy excused herself out of the path of a Hitmonchan to look at the map on her brace and look for street signs around her. Once she knew her direction, she took to crossings with a herd of others who waited for the "walk" sign. She almost stepped on a Stufful that was making its way across with its limbs all swinging out happily. Murkrow cawed from street lamps at passersby and occasionally swooped down to steal a French fry from a table. This was moderate city living. She'd been on more crowded sidewalks before, but there was something quaint about Bourbonville. Perhaps it was its size. But it made for great local shopping. Tons of boutiques and outlets were dotted all around the map. But a bargain wasn't her goal today.

Finally, Katy saw the street sign labeled West Franklin come into view. She picked up her pace a little and said no thank you to the man and his Slowking who offered to tell her the future. Once she was on the street, she stopped. She hadn't actually thought of what she would _do_ when she got here. Perhaps check the garbage cans? Katy walked by buildings and peeked down alleys. She must have disturbed the collared Quilava behind a fence, because it flared up and startled her. The next alley seemed to be lit by fire, and she was afraid it was a Typhlosion ready to ensure the safety of its property, so she carefully leaned to view it, sticking close to the road.

There he was. William Milord, tapping his own trainer's brace and a big, faded orange and heavily scarred Charizard. It looked in her direction and then so did William.

"Hi!" She said brightly, stepping into the alley with them.

"What are you doing here?" he replied.

Katy shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I was kind of interested in the whole thing. Is this your Charizard?"

"Yes," he said distractedly, looking back at his brace.

"I have a Charizard, too!"

"Everyone has a Charizard," he said dully.

Katy grinned. "None like mine!"

"Nor mine." He looked back at her with a sigh. "Look, you really shouldn't be here. You should—leave."

"But I want to help you."

"Help me what."

Katy blinked. "With… whatever it is that you're doing."

"I don't need any help." He tapped his brace some more.

"I didn't ask if you needed help, I said I wanted to help."

He snapped his attention back to her, his eyes sharp. "Well, I don't _want_ your help. Go home."

"But I can get Taron's brace back to him! I know how to get it and he has to be missing it—"

"Taron McCallister isn't missing shit," William said, looking up a fire escape near the dumpster. "Because he's likely dead."

Katy flinched. "… Dead?"

"Yes. Dead." William moved to the ladder and beckoned his Charizard. It waddled over to him.

"Wh—why would he be dead? What makes you say that?"

"Why else would his brace be in the fucking garbage unless someone killed him," He climbed into his Charizard's clawed hands and reached for the bottom of the ladder.

Katy watched him go up, eventually standing beside his Charizard. "You mean he was _murdered?"_

"That'd be my bet," William grunted as he finally got his feet on the rungs and began to ascend.

"Why would anyone want to kill him?" Katy looked to the Charizard. "May I, please?" She gestured to the ladder. The dragon offered her a boost just the same.

"Don't let her up here!" William yelled down. But his Pokémon ignored him and lifted Katy to the ladder anyway. He sighed irritably and kept climbing. "Because he worked for a certain governmental company that's uh… not especially well-received. By anyone really." He reached the fire escape and looked through a window before he kept climbing up the next ladder.

"How do you know all of this?" Katy asked, following him every step, every ladder.

"It doesn't matter. Stop—get down. You're gonna get us both in trouble."

"I promise I won't." She went up the next ladder, too. "How do you even know it was in this dumpster?"

"Because it's the only dumpster that has blood on it." The man carefully approached a broken window and looked inside while Katy looked below her to see if she could see the blood from here. It must have been just a little that he spotted down there.

When he poked his head inside then ducked back out to knock the rest of the glass out of the frame, Katy gasped. "What are you doing?!" She hissed. Before she could accuse him of getting them both caught, he had disappeared inside. "William!" she whispered loudly. _"William!"_ She growled and hesitated before she followed him through the window.

The room was considerably darker than the alley. Katy jumped when William spoke aloud. "Hello?" No one answered.

"Is this his apartment?" Katy looked for a light switch when suddenly a burst of flames owned the corner of her vision and she whirled around.

William's fist was ablaze, like a torch in a cave. "Don't touch anything," he instructed. "I mean it, not a thing. Understand?"

Katy nodded, still staring at his flames. It'd been awhile since she'd seen a Deviant use their Ability. When he turned, she followed him through a living area. It was odd. The place was relatively clean. There wasn't really a sign of struggle that Katy could detect. But what did she know; she wasn't a cop. She followed William into the bedroom.

And that's when she smelled it.

Oh my God.

There was a dead body in this apartment.

William crept to the cracked bathroom door, then slowly pushed it open. He reeled back with his arm over his nose. "Jesus Christ."

Katy covered her nose with her shirt and hurried up to see what he'd found, but he blocked her way.

"Don't. Go sit in the living room."

"What is it? Is it Taron?" Katy gasped when something shot out of the bathroom and zipped across the floor, diving straight under the bed. For a moment she was too startled to move, but then she gathered the courage to crouch down and look under the bed without moving toward it.

A Pokémon. Shivering in fear in the dark.

"Ohh… Oh, it's okay," she cooed. "We didn't mean to scare you. Come on out, little thing. We won't hurt you."

She saw little white hands shift.

"It's all right. Come here; maybe I can help you."

After another moment's hesitation, the creature began to shuffle forward. Katy watched it finally climb out into the dim light. It was a tiny Ralts, fixing its hat before resuming its quivering.

She smiled. "Hey, little thing! It's all right."

It turned its head to William and stared at him blatantly. Katy eventually looked to him as well. He was calling the police on his brace.

"Is Taron in there?"

"Yeah," William replied. "In the bathtub."


	5. Trouble

**Trouble**

The police arrived on the scene in no time. Now Katy was glad she heeded William's warning to not touch anything. However, her next concern was that they would have gotten in trouble for breaking in, but William got them out of that suavely. He told a tale of having been in the alley and heard the Pokémon crying in distress from the broken window, so they both climbed up to rescue it. Katy attempted to hold the Ralts and soothe its anxiety, but it quite adamantly insisted on clinging to William's ankle and she wasn't sure why; he had barely glanced at the thing since it ran out of the bathroom.

Overall, Katy expected to be asked a lot more questions, but the police seemed to be satisfied with the fact that they only arrived moments ago. But she was still sure to tune in to all the observations the officers made. According to the smell and the way the blood had congealed, it was safe to say that Taron McCallister had been here for a solid week or so. Which meant the Ralts had been in here for that long without anyone to take care of it. Poor little thing.

They had found a shard of the window in the bathtub with the body, coated in blood. It was upon this discovery that the officers began to toss around the suicide notion. William would interject every time, asking them to look at his things like his computer files, items in his apartment. But they hardly paid attention to him. After that, Katy and William were asked to leave the building while the police continued their investigation. When Katy asked about the Ralts and what would happen to it, they dismissed her remark altogether. So, she picked it up and carried it with her. They knew how to get in touch with her if they wanted it.

"You should have told them about the blood on the dumpster," Katy said when she stepped out in the street with him. His Charizard was waiting there for him faithfully.

"It wouldn't have mattered. I told them the brace was in the dumpster and that didn't seem to pique their interest at all." He looked back at the building skeptically.

"That's weird," Katy checked the time on her brace. It was getting late in the afternoon. "You want to go sit down and eat some dinner somewhere?"

William turned to her and blinked slowly as if she had just reminded him that he didn't care for her presence.

She was sure to perk up with her next statement. "I can make us sandwiches; I have everything with me."

His eyes narrowed. A trainer rarely turned down free food. Bingo. "You don't mind?"

Katy was caught off guard by his polite response. "Not at all! Please! Eat with me!"

William pursed his lips then nodded. "Thanks."

She wiggled excitedly for a brief moment before marching off to find a place to eat.

There was a perfect little park nearby where lots of people and their Pokémon. A Rockruff was playing fetch with a stick that was more like a branch that was bigger than itself, a Blastoise was enjoying a nap under the shade of a tree, and a Relicanth was blowing bubbles at its trainer from under the water at the fountain. Katy seated Ralts on the picnic table where at first it watched all the people and Pokémon playing together, then opted to watching Katy prepare sandwiches. But not even this lasted as long as it gazed up at William as he had some secret to impart that Ralts was waiting for eagerly. "I think it likes you."

William was digging his Poké Balls out of his bag when he glanced in their direction. "I couldn't imagine why."

"You kinda saved its life. Maybe you're its hero."

He huffed. "I'm nobody's hero."

"I bet your Charizard would beg to differ."

"My Charizard has saved my ass more than I've saved my own ass; I'm probably more like a toddler to her."

"Fnrp," Snorted the faded dragon. It was indubitably one of agreement.

Katy couldn't help but laugh. "She's your babysitter?"

"That's pretty accurate." William set out some Pokémon chips with a canister of Pokémon kibble.

She giggled again. "What's her name?"

"Ripley."

Katy smiled up at the dragon. "Hi, Ripley. Thanks for being our backup today."

The Charizard blinked softly at her.

"Hey! Let me introduce you to my team!" Katy dug in her bag for all her Poké Balls, too, and released them into the picnic area. "You've met Banksy and Bentley. That's Charlie, Houdini, Xander, and Mozart."

The Ralts sitting on the picnic table marveled at all the huge beasts around it now. The two Charizard immediately eyed each other. It was in a Pokémon's nature to connect with others of the same species or evolution chain. Some would form relationships. Others compared themselves. In Charlie's case, he promptly puffed his chest to make himself look bigger and snorted a boastful flame. Ripley did not seem to be interested, however.

William jutted his chin forward a little and nodded at her team. "Got some muscle. How's this one?" He gestured to the Lucario.

Xander's ears twitched at being addressed and his sharp eyes sized up William.

"He's great! Never had any trouble with him. I know you asked because of what you've heard about Lucario and stubbornness, right?"

He smirked and nodded.

"Nothing that we couldn't handle. Right, bud?"

"… Brahk," Xander chuffed in a delayed response.

"Battle good?"

"Top notch. He's my only Pokémon that never lost a battle."

"Impressive, I guess. Losses give a Pokémon more personal motivation though." He bit into the sandwich Katy made.

She smiled. "What about your team? What's your Volcarona's name?"

"Mm," he said around a mouthful and cracked a Poké Ball. The giant moth fabricated from the light and clung to his back. William swallowed his bite. "Crona." He picked up another Ball. This one he chucked a good distance from the table. "Loki."

A heat wave struck Katy's hair and blew it forward off her neck. She whirled around to see a Magmar bending the air around it like the sun on asphalt. Its beak twitched as it attempted to sniff its new atmosphere. It immediately became entranced by a Hakamo-o digging in the sand nearby. Katy smiled. "He's amazing."

"He's a fucking ditz is what he is. But when he listens, he listens well." William opened another Poké Ball. This was the one that made Katy gasp.

With a high trill, a fluffy brown Eevee shook itself like a dog and jumped into its trainer's lap, proceeding to rub its face all over his torso and pretty much everything that was a part of his body. "Okay," Katy said, "Godda say I didn't see that one coming."

"For a Flareon," William clarified, "He's new." He took another bite of his sandwich while his Eevee bumped his arm with its face-love.

That made sense. "Fire types are your favorite?"

"They're the easiest for me to train with." He got a handful of Pokémon chips and presented them first to his Eevee and then to his Charizard who gave them a sniff but opted against having any. Crona didn't hesitate to stake his claim, eating the chips with tiny little crunches.

Katy made another sandwich. "Do you duel?"

"Sometimes."

"Aark phhm," Ripley snapped.

William glanced at the dragon. "Not anymore," he revised in a lower tone.

Katy presented the sandwich to the female Charizard whose eyes brightened at the offering and she took it carefully in her jaws. She began making another, smiling at William. "I bet you were really good at it. Sounds like your mom over here didn't really care for it."

"No. She did not." When the Ralts shuffled across the table to William, he held a kibble piece in his fingers. When he took it, it was comparable to giving a house elf a sock.

"She watches out for you." Katy handed her own Charizard a sandwich while Houdini had followed his nose to the playground.

"Like I said. She's saved my ass more times than I can count."

"What the hell kind of trouble did you get into?" Katy half-chuckled.

He and his Charizard looked at each other like they were acknowledging an inside secret. But he just shook his head. "Trouble not unlike whatever Taron McCallister got into." He took a bite of his dinner.


	6. Drop A Feather

**Drop A Feather**

So, that was the beginning of Katy's inquisitions and consequently the end of William's responses. Apparently he had decided he'd already said too much, but if that was the case, she wasn't sure why he said that much to begin with. Was it because she fed him? Would he have been less likely to tell her he carried a past of getting mixed up with the wrong people had she not made him a sandwich? Or was it because they found a dead body together?

But when the park closed, William didn't have any objection to her following him wherever it was he would lay his head to rest. He ended up settling in a field with tall grass near one of the few trees visible. Katy shared her water with him and he sighed big and loud when he lay down on his back with his bag pillowing his head. Katy did the same, snuggling up to Houdini who rested his head across her waist and stared blatantly at William. "Be nice," she said quietly to her Pokémon. By the time the stars had become their brightest, the trainers had fallen asleep.

The next morning, Katy awoke to Houdini whispering. "khha khha," he breathed. She sat up and rubbed her eyes before she looked around for what was making Houdini do his "baby breath" imitation.

In the dim light of the rising sun, fire flashed across the field in great blasts, coming from two directions. Katy stood up to see better and she found Loki and his trainer facing off in a duel. The Magmar shot a jet of flames from his beak and William sprinted right into it, splitting it down the middle with his own fiery fist until he reached the Pokémon within close range. Arms were flying, claws were slashing, fire was burning a circle in the field around them. Even where there were no flames, the grass suddenly wilted and died, turning charred and black. And Katy just watched amazed as William sparred with his partner, both of them with surprising reflexes that mimicked martial arts. Ralts was impressed, too. It had gotten up from William's bag where it must have slept next to his head all night to watch. Though it seemed to have trouble seeing him over the tall grass, so Katy picked it up to give it a better view. She heard its tiny gasp when William swung a flaming roundhouse at his Magmar who just barely blocked it in time. Loki followed with a Flamethrower right across William's naked back. "OHO!" The man skipped away and bounced on his toes to endure the burn. His Magmar turned to watch him, claws by his sides. "Nice," William panted, trying to reach between his shoulder blades to soothe his burn. The Pokémon watched him walk around, its beak holding a constant "o." "I'm all right, I'm all right," the trainer waved a hand at Loki, but Katy noticed a wince in his features as he walked back to his bag. "Good job." He picked up Loki's Ball and opened it. The Magmar turned to white light and jumped across the field into the container before it closed.

"How bad did he get you?" asked Katy, trying to get a view of his back, mainly to occupy herself from becoming mesmerized by his broad, muscular chest and sculpted abs.

"Not bad," he said, turning around to pick up his shirt. That's when Katy saw the red patches across his shoulders.

"Wait. Let me…" She dug in her bag for her first aid supplies, retrieving a small pouch of burn cream. She tore the wrapper and approached him. He didn't move, so he was apparently not denying her help. "Hold still. This will be really cold." She pressed a small amount onto his back. And as if he were hell-bent on doing exactly the opposite of what she said and had not prepared for what she warned, he flinched and hollered at the icy sensation, pinching his shoulders together. "Hold _still!"_ Katy gently massaged it into his inflamed skin.

Soon he calmed down and began to feel the relief the ointment brought him and he sighed in contentment. After she had finished, William slipped his shirt on and turned to face her. "Thanks."

"No problem. You train with your Pokémon a lot?"

He shrugged his shirt into a comfortable position. "Every day."

Katy kind of stared through him now. "I wish I was a Deviant."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be, kid. Just more shit to take care of. On top of staying hydrated, fed, healthy—you godda keep track of your Ability's energy." He started putting his shoes back on. It was then Katy noticed he'd been barefoot the whole time. "Godda vent when you build up too much and you godda rest when you don't have enough. It sucks. You run out, you could die. It's like losing blood." He laced up his sneakers. "And even if you don't die, you're cold. Nauseated. Just gross-weak." William started going through his bag again. "And when you got too much, you run a fever. Also get nauseated. Can cause brain damage. Leave you a vegetable if you're not careful."

Katy blinked. "Shit."

"It's just more to maintain. Not a whole lot of advantage to having an Ability. Especially not with Pokémon." He stopped and looked up at her. "They didn't teach you this stuff in school?"

"Barely. Not the biology of it. Just… the mutation part of it." Katy shrugged.

"Hm." He dug through his bag some more. "Probably not a bad idea." When he found what he was looking for, he sat back and pulled his shoed foot in his lap where he began picking the bottom with his knife.

Katy sat back down. "Is your Ability what got you in trouble with… whoever?"

He didn't answer right away. "No. I… inserted myself into situations… that I was probably better off staying out of."

"What kind of situations?" She realized she'd asked a version of this last night and received a reply likened to a brick wall, but she figured she'd try it again.

"Just…" He sighed and tilted his head another angle to pick more mud off his shoe. "Government stuff, federal shit. You drop a feather in those areas, you get swarmed for the rest of your life."

"What did you do?"

"It doesn't matter now."

Damn. Katy backed up and went around to find another way in. "Well, what was it that Taron McCallister was doing that got him killed? Who did he work for?"

"He worked for Advancement Inc., you know, that company that keeps testing all kinds of new shit on Pokémon and people. Got the liberals all in a tizzy every damn day of the week." William switched feet and started on the sole of his other shoe. "Medicine, machinery, trying to make everything automated."

Katy raised her eyebrows. "Oh yeah! Are they the ones who were on the news a couple years ago for, like, throwing all their dead test subjects in a landfill?"

"Yeah," William chuckled. This was the first time she'd heard even a hint of a laugh from him. And it was at the mention of a giant pile of dead people. "They were first in trouble for the pollution, then the cops found out what the fuck it was in the landfills that was polluting everything. Turning all the Grimer in the area into freaky rabid mutants and shit." He shook his head with another chuckle. Like the behavior of the human race was amusing to him.

"So, you think liberal vigilantes killed Taron?"

"No. I don't."

Katy waited. She was almost tired of asking questions. She was tired of seeming clueless. But she wanted to learn. So, she just waited for him to complete her thought for her.

He glanced at her. "I think he knew something. Something Advancement is in on. Working on. And I think it didn't sit well with Taron. And he expressed an opposing thought. And I think that's what got him killed."

She narrowed her eyes a bit. "You mean his own people."

"Or the government. But, hey; same thing." He shrugged with a lazy, cocked eyebrow.

Katy considered all of this for a moment then looped back to her intentions with starting this subject. She began putting pieces together from two days ago until now. And finally she had it. "Is that what you did?"

He stopped picking at his shoes completely.

Ding ding.

William looked up at her, this time with a steely expression. Katy held her ground and waited for him to respond. "What makes you think that."

She shrugged casually. "Just a guess." Katy tilted her head. "You kind of seem like the guy who would… stand up against something. If you didn't believe in it. Even if it was something you were close to."

He paused for another moment then leaned back on his hands. The Ralts took advantage of the opportunity to crawl into his lap and sit there like she was waiting for him to ask her what she wanted for Christmas. "How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-five."

His eyes went wide and he dipped his chin. "No shit?"

"No shit. Why."

"I thought you were, like, fuckin' eighteen or something." He cleaned his knife off on his thigh.

"Everyone always thinks I'm younger than I am," she mumbled. "But that's what you did, right? You worked for Advancement?"

He sighed. "I… worked in the building. Maintenance." He closed his knife up and put it back in his bag. "Saw enough. Heard enough."

"So, you said something."

"No, I was smart enough _not_ to say something. I should have gone to the police, I guess." He rubbed the back of his neck. "But. I didn't. At the time it was… something of an emergency so I kind of took matters into my own hands."

"What did you do?"

William inhaled. "Well. I did more than drop a feather."


	7. Provocation

**Provocation**

If it were possible for this man to capture her attention any more than he had, Katy would be genuinely amazed. A fire Deviant—and a good one at that—with an experienced Pokémon team and a morale that convicted him, a maintenance man at an important federal manufacturing agency, to take action against something that was not right (and not to mention rather good looking). What that action was? Katy would not be finding out today. William had proceeded to entirely ignore her attempts to go around his brick wall. That was all right though. He still hadn't made her leave. So, there was still time to learn his story. She was certain there was a hero in him somewhere.

She followed him when he started walking of course. When she asked where they were going, he said back to the police station to see what had come from the investigation. It was obvious he wanted to stick close to this case. And this was by far the most exciting thing that had ever happened in her life. She wasn't about to let it go.

On their way to the urban part of Bourbonville, the bushes ahead rustled and William stopped when a Stantler with a relatively small rack stepped out into their path. It snorted at William and spread its hooves apart.

"Shoo," he said, waving his hand a little.

The Stantler snorted again and pawed at the ground under it.

William lit his fist ablaze and waved some embers at it to scare it off. But the Pokémon was not backing down. It lowered its head as if it were ready to charge. "Okay, asshole," William dug in his bag and cracked open a Poké Ball. His fluffy Eevee gave a happy trill and circled around his ankles, loving on the legs of his pants. He pointed at the Stantler. "Run it off, Eevee."

Eevee looked up at him then proceeded to continue his face-love.

"Eevee—" William crouched down to the fluff and pointed at the Stantler at his Pokémon's eye level. "Run it off. Scare it away. Okay? Quick Attack."

Eevee gave a questioning squeak and looked to the deer. He stared at its antlers, watching the brown spheres in their centers.

"No, no, don't look at its things—"

"Brroo?" Eevee kept staring and began to blink, wobbling a little.

"No, no, no, no—"

The fluff fell over on his side, eyes rolling around in his head like he'd spun around too fast. "Rooo?"

"Oh my God."

The Stantler snorted again and this time it charged.

"Look out!" Katy clutched Ralts to her chest and hurried out of the way.

William stepped in front of his Eevee and planted his weight. The deer straightened its spine, ready to throw him out of the way but the man caught its antlers. "Rrgh!" The force pushed his heels through the dirt, but William held his ground. "Fuck OFF!" He twisted the antlers in his strong grip and threw the deer sideways, making it stagger and stumble to maintain its balance. He stomped at it, throwing up a flash of fire from the ground. But this didn't seem to deter it. Stantler was now apparently too pissed off by being thrown by its antlers to be frightened away now. It pawed at the dirt again and tossed its head. William lit both fists on fire. "Motherfucker, I will end you—"

A flash of light made everyone blink. The Stantler promptly stopped moving and blinked. It shook its head about and staggered. It snorted in frustration and tried to walk but its joints collapsed, and it just fell on its folded legs. It shook its head again as if it were having similar problems to what Eevee was having. William turned around.

Ralts let go of her hat and laid her little hands back against Katy's arm that held her close. "Wah."

Katy looked down at the tiny thing. "Did you do that?"

A small grin spread across her face.

William huffed. "Good job. See, Eevee?" He looked down at his Pokémon, "Ralts took out a Stantler. You could have done that if you hadn't stared at its things." He nudged the fluff with his shoe.

"Rroof?" Eevee tried to stand but just fell over again.

"Aw, don't be mean to him," Katy set down the Ralts to pick up William's Pokémon gently. "He didn't know not to stare at Stantler's antlers. Did you, buddy?" She scratched the top of his head.

Still dizzy and eyes still rolling around, the Eevee attempted to lean into the direction of her fingers.

"Well, he knows now. You're gonna battle the next wild one, Eevee. You've got to get some actual experience." William stepped around the Stantler that was still lying on its folded legs. He stopped when there was a tug on his pants. He looked down to find the Ralts at his ankle, reaching her little white arms up at him. "All right." The man leaned down and carefully picked up the Pokémon and set her on his shoulder. The Ralts looked as happy as she had ever looked since rescuing her. Katy followed with a giggle, still petting Eevee in her arms.

At the police station, William and Katy were practically ignored. They sat and waited for twenty minutes before an officer came out to ask them to repeat everything they told the one behind the desk—then left again and they waited about another twenty minutes. Katy expected they would want to bring them into an office, sit and talk with them, maybe ask them a few more questions depending on what they found with their investigation. But when the next officer came out, the interaction was about the last thing Katy anticipated.

"We've declared it suicide; there's no investigation anymore," said the policewoman.

William blinked. "How do you know?"

"Because of the glass in the bathtub with the body."

He blinked again. "This guy worked for Advancement Inc. Did you check for prints? Did you ask his co-workers questions?"

"There's no need; everything points to suicide." The officer shook her head.

"No, it does not." William stood up and Katy became a little concerned. She didn't think it particularly wise to show a loss of patience with law enforcement. "If he were going to slit his own throat, why would he break his window to do it? Why not get a knife?"

"If he was murdered, why didn't the killer use a knife," the woman combatted.

"To make it LOOK like suicide!" William raised his voice. "Did you check this guy's mental health records? Was there a history of depression? Trouble at work? Family issues? Was he _scared_ of something or someone?"

"Depression often goes undetected up to the point of suicide, Mr. Milord. Thank you for your concern, but the case is closed. Good day." She turned and walked away down the hall again.

William turned back to Katy, exasperated. "What the fuck?"

She shrugged. "I guess they want to be done with it."

"They didn't even question his co-workers or his family," he said irritably. "They can't call it case closed if they didn't even cover all their bases."

Katy glanced at the Herdier that eyed them suspiciously. "William, keep your voice down." She stood up, still hugging Eevee. "Let's just go."

"No, they need to do their FUCKING JOBS," he shouted at passersby officers.

"William!" Katy gripped the man's arm and pulled him to the door. She ushered him outside to the stoop of the station. The Ralts on his shoulder had begun to frown and slap his shoulder in anger with little growls that were less than intimidating. "Can you not provoke the police, please? I don't want to go to jail."

"I'll tell you what the fuck is going on, they are IN on it. They're IN on it," he rambled. Ralts huffed and puffed on his shoulder. "They're in Advancement's pocket and they're brushing this under the rug because whatever the fuck Taron knew THEY know, too, and they're keeping it under wraps!"

"Sshhh!" Katy hissed. "Please! This is _not_ the place to be making such accusations." She gripped his arm again and guided him down the steps of the stoop.

"Oh this shit is getting shut down. I'll take it straight to the damn state," he went on. He didn't stop until they were nearly off the stoop—and a Pokémon swept up in their path, a fiery Infernape, baring its fangs in greeting.

Katy gasped and grinned at it. "Hi, there! Look at you!"

"YOUUU!" sang a voice from across the street. A tall, blonde young man crossed the road at a jog with a large Arcanine by his side, then stood between the two fire types and laughed a big, fake-evil laugh.

"Oh my God," William groaned, "Not now."

"Oh yes, now," said the guy. He threw up his fists in a sparring pose and his Infernape mimicked his stance, both of them bouncing on their feet. "Let's go, pal. Eye contact. You godda fight."

"That's not how it works," William said lazily.

"Well, I ain't lettin' you off this stoop until you do, sucka. Let's GO. You scared? Think big bad Ripley can't take me and my fellas anymore?" He rocked and pretended to brush his shoulders off, as did his Infernape.

"You are legitimately the most annoying human being I've ever met."

"Then shut me up, yo." He and his monkey gave a taunting gesture of beckoning. "Let's go." The Arcanine barked and stuck its butt up in the air playfully.

Katy looked to William.

He sighed. The man dug in his pocket and tossed out his Charizard's Poké Ball. Ripley fabricated from her light in the street and locked eyes with the Arcanine and the Infernape.

"OOAH! AH AH AH!" The monkey's flames on its head flared to life as he pounded on his chest in challenge.

And Ripley simply snorted a puff of smoke before the two Pokémon charged at her.


	8. Scandal

**Scandal**

Ripley tossed off the Arcanine when it jumped on her back by getting on all fours and spinning. The dog flew off just as the Infernape jumped on. Ripley wasn't able to easily shake this one as he held on with hands and feet. The Charizard struck over her shoulder and snatched the monkey by his arm and tossed him away. The Arcanine tackled the dragon from the side upon instruction of his trainer. Katy watched the blonde young man shout commands and acting out his own strikes—Katy noticed with flashes of fire from his knuckles. He was a Deviant, too, a fire Deviant like William. That explained the two Fire types. She could bet he had more with him. And at the moment, Ripley was doing a wonderful job holding her own against the both of them. She doused them both with flames to keep them out of close range, she swatted away the monkey when he swung off the street lamps for an aerial attack, she whacked the dog with her sledgehammer of a tail. They bit at her wings, they punched and kicked at her chest and flanks. But they really weren't trying to inflict damage, she noticed. She'd seen some rough battles before. She'd had her own Pokémon in such battles, where their opponents would do their very best to draw blood. Katy didn't care for such battles. But if she ever had entered a battle like that, she let her team fight back the same way.

Another thing she noticed was that William called out no attack commands. In fact, she wasn't sure she heard him make a sound. He'd stuffed his hands in his pockets and begun to pace around the battle arena and staying out of the way of the cars that drove by slowly to watch. Ralts rode around on his shoulder and surveyed the battle, too. It certainly took away from William's hardcore, edgy aura, but Ralts was enjoying herself immensely. And William didn't seem to mind.

After Ripley smashed the Infernape into the concrete for the fifth time or so, the blonde hollered and waved his hands. "All right, all right! Enough! Caesar! Brutus! Come back."

The monkey coughed and peeled itself off the ground and the Arcanine bounded back to his trainer faithfully. Katy noticed no one's brace made a sound. They'd battled, technically, but it wasn't recorded by their braces. That meant no battle reward. She wasn't entirely sure what the current situation was or what it consisted of, but she still thoroughly impressed with the battle.

"DAMN it!" the blonde snapped his fingers, "Bested me again, you did. One of these days, Will! Me and my boys are gonna pull one out of the hat. You and Rip won't know what hit ya." He approached William on the stoop, sticking out his hand with a big, white grin.

William obliged for a handshake, but didn't waste time stepping around him to continue on his way.

"That was a great battle," said Katy, still hugging Eevee to her chest. "How do you two know each other?"

"Me and Will? Aw, we go _way_ back!" The taller guy did a double take before his green eyes focused and he swept up next to her. "And who might you be? Angel from heaven?"

Katy laughed so suddenly she snorted and clapped a hand over her mouth. She cleared her throat and spoke. "Haha, um—no, nobody. I'm Katy."

"Christian Andrews, madam." He took her hand and gave it a surprisingly professional shake. "Lovely to make your acquaintance. Please don't tell me you're Will's woman; you'll break my heart."

Katy laughed again, this time so loud and high-pitched, passersby on the sidewalk looked at her with concern. "No, no, I'm just—we're friends—"

"We're not friends," William corrected as he walked on down the street with Ripley zapping back into her Ball at his hip.

The young woman blinked. "We're not friends. Apparently. We're just trying to sort some stuff out together. I-it's nice to meet you." Katy stepped around Christian to follow William.

The blonde turned and followed both of them. "Sort some stuff out? Like what? Did you two just come from the police station?"

"Yes," Katy replied.

"No," William corrected again. Ralts gave a tiny, irritated sigh on his shoulder.

"What gives, what's happening?" Christian skipped up to intercept William at his path and his Infernape did the same, swinging around a lamppost to appear beside his trainer. "You all in some kind of trouble?"

"I will literally pay you to leave me the fuck alone," the other man said dully. Katy stopped just a few paces behind him and looked to the Arcanine that appeared by her side, panting happily.

"Come on, man, maybe I can help!" Christian grinned, "You need another partner?"

"No!" William shouted. "I don't need ANY of you and I want you ALL to just LEAVE me the fuck ALONE!"

Katy resented being spoken to in such a way, so she took her stand. "Excuse you. You wouldn't know ANYTHING about ANY of this stuff with Advancement if it wasn't for me. To say you don't need me is a pretty bold claim, considering I'm the one who pointed you in the direction of Taron's whereabouts." She hugged William's Eevee defiantly.

William sighed loudly in response and Christian spoke up again. "You mean Taron McCallister?"

Katy and the other man both looked to him simultaneously.

Christian loosened his stance. "Was he missing?"

William stepped closer. "You knew Taron?"

The blonde blinked. "Knew?"

The other flinched. "Know? You know Taron?"

"Yeah," he said, "We were buddies in high school. Not so much after that; he went to college, I became a trainer… What's going on?"

William took a breath and ran his fingers through his dark hair. Even he seemed to be solemn now. Katy looked to Christian and spoke quietly. "We—… He died. We found him in his apartment yesterday… I'm so sorry."

Since the first time Katy had met this young man, he was utterly subdued. His smile was gone like it had never been there to begin with. Like it might never be there again. Even his Infernape's flames shrunk to a pitiful blaze. "What happened," he said in half his previous voice.

Katy looked to William. He pursed his lips and put his hands on his hips. "Someone killed him," he admitted quietly. "We found him in his bathtub. Someone had broken in and murdered him."

Suddenly the Ralts on William's shoulder squeaked in the actuation of a sob. At first Katy thought the Pokémon was mourning her lost trainer, but she realized it might actually be that the Ralts was feeling the strongest emotion among the three trainers. And at the moment, that was Christian's sadness. The Arcanine chuffed and looked to his trainer and the Infernape moved closer to Christian with soft "ooh ooh's." It was another moment before the blonde spoke. "You found him in his apartment, just up the street here?" He pointed down the sidewalk. When the other two nodded soberly, Christian immediately began marching away toward the apartment building.

"He's not there anymore," William said, following, "The police have already moved him." But the blonde didn't reply. He just kept marching on, Brutus and Caesar flanking him faithfully. Katy kept Eevee against her chest and followed, too. Sure enough, Christian went into the apartment building, as it was open due to recent investigation, and straight up to the floor William and Katy had been on just a day prior. The door was closed, but it wasn't locked, so he really did just walk right in. Katy found this odd, but then she remembered—there was no investigation anymore. The police had declared it suicide. It wasn't a crime scene, therefore, it wasn't well monitored.

William and Katy stood near the door as they watched Christian move through the apartment to Taron's desk. His computer was still plugged in and turned on. But Christian wasn't trying to access it; he was looking through the drawers—rifling, more like. He pulled them open and shuffled things around until finally he turned around to them. "There's supposed to be a flash drive, a-an extra hard drive. He—a long time ago he showed me some stuff on it, some stuff they were making. I don't remember what it was, it was like some kind of machine that was supposed to help you test the safety of your airbag in your vehicle or something. It wasn't important, but there was… other stuff on that flash drive. I saw the files. Like—I didn't _see_ them, but I saw the folders. And he wouldn't tell me what they were. I know some of them were video files, but he wouldn't show me." Christian shrugged in defeat. "I know this is where he kept it. He hid it behind these things." He pushed some hanging file folders back and shifted a small box. "But it's not here."

"They took it," said William simply. He looked to both of them. "I'd bet my last breath the police confiscated it. And likely destroyed it and its contents."

Christian barely nodded. "They killed him for what was on that flash drive."

Katy blinked. "… Are we sure the police took it? Maybe he… found another hiding place for it."

"Even if he did, they found it," said William, "Why do you think they made us leave that day? They'd already decided they were declaring it suicide, but they wanted us out so they could hunt for the flash drive to get rid of it."

Katy's eyes drifted down. Son of a bitch. This really was a scandal. "… That can't be the only place he had it though. He had to have a copy of whatever was on that flash drive that was so important to him that he had to hide it."

"Like another flash drive?" said Christian. He began looking through the drawers again.

"Well, maybe. What if it's at his workplace?"

"That'd be stupid. It was Advancement that killed him, why would he keep that shit right under their noses?" said William.

"Because that's where it happened!" Katy argued. "What happens in Vegas concept?" The men became silent. "If there's a copy of whatever was on that flash drive, it's at his place of work."

"But not necessarily at his work station," said Christian.

"No, but this is obviously what it's about. Something's going on there, just like you said, William," Katy looked to him, "and Taron got killed for taking it home with him."

The Ralts on William's shoulder had become quiet and still, soaking up all of their contemplation.

Christian shrugged again. "So? What can be done about that? Advancement… has got a dirty little secret. How the hell are we ever going to know?"

Katy rubbed her lips together. "… William."

He look to her and so did Ralts.

"You still have your security pass from when you worked there?"


	9. Helluva Perk

**Helluva Perk**

"Whoa, whoa, break _in?"_ Christian said incredulously.

"It's not breaking in if you have a keycard," Katy explained. William must have thought this to be an amusing statement because he huffed. Katy suddenly felt very proud of herself.

"Like, you mean, go in at night and snoop around?"

Katy shrugged. "See what we can see."

"That sounds…" Christian shook his head and ran his fingers through his curls.

"Like a job for a Pokémon," said William before he turned his attention fully to Katy. "How good is your Zoroark at copying appearances?"

"Oh! He's really good."

"Like… we talking Ditto-face good orrr—"

"No, no! Like, really good. As long as he doesn't have to talk."

"You guys are serious?" Christian started to laugh nervously, "Y'all, this is Advancement Inc. They find out we're spying on them—"

"How do we get him to tell us what he sees," said William.

"We'd have to rig him with a camera or something. Which means we'd have to have a way for him to hear us," Katy replied.

"Guys?" Christian waved his arms.

"Hell, if we are getting him in there disguised as somebody, might as well do it during business hours," William shrugged.

Katy gasped. "Yeah, then we're more likely to see something."

"HelLO?" Christian snapped his fingers. "Yo, are you crazy? This is nuts, stop talking about it!"

Katy turned to the blonde. "These people probably killed your friend, Christian. Don't you want them brought to justice?"

"Well—yeah, but by the police! That's their job!"

"The police are _covering_ for Advancement," William said strongly and pointed in the direction of the station. "Go on and talk to them and see for yourself. See if you can get them to say anything besides suicide."

"It's true," Katy agreed, "They refused to even question his family or co-workers. Completely against protocol, to my knowledge."

Christian looked between them. Katy could tell he believed what they'd told him, but he was having difficulty processing it all. To be honest, she couldn't blame him. It was a lot. In fact, her skin began crawling with the realization, too. They weren't safe. No one was really safe. At least not in Bourbonville. She refocused when Christian shook his head. "This is insane. Just call someone else, bring in another police department—"

"It's this district, it will have to go through this police department at some point, Christian. And if they're doing what they did to us today, they'll cover it up. If we can get some evidence against them, _then_ we can take this over their heads. That's all we want to do. We want someone to know what's going on, someone who is going to do something about it."

"Ah, shit," said William, "I forgot. They totally would have toasted my pass after I quit. There's no way it would get us in."

"Then we really would have to kind of break in," Katy added, "Or borrow someone else's. Without their permission."

Christian chuckled. "Reminds me of when Caesar went through his pick-pocketing phase." The other two looked at him. His grin faded. "I—I mean, no! That's impossible! Who on Earth could you get to do that without getting caught!" When they kept staring him down, he caved. "I—was just making an observation, don't—don't you drag me into this!"

William tilted his head. "You wouldn't get dragged into shit if you kept your fucking mouth shut. What did I tell you was gonna happen?" He pointed at him.

Katy now looked between the men. She was actually very curious of their history.

"I'm NOT helping you spy on them! Call the damn F-B-I for that! Leave me and my team out of it!" Christian walked between them to the door.

William stayed facing the empty room and bowed his head. "Advancement killed my Houndoom."

Christian stopped in his tracks. He and Katy both turned to look at William, but the man kept his back turned to them.

He pulled his hands up to his hips with a careful motion. "They knew why I quit. And they didn't say anything when I left. But two days later, they came by my place and shot him in the middle of the night. They wanted to make sure I knew to not tell anyone about the shit I saw. Like that was supposed to scare me into silence." He huffed and shook his head, looking up to the ceiling now, his back still turned. Katy felt an awful tug in her chest. And the Ralts started softly weeping, wiping her little eyes. But when he turned around, his eyes were clear and sharp. "They killed Victor because they _thought_ I might say something. Whoever runs this show thinks they're the fucking Hitler of the country. And I don't know how far it goes up. Branch manager is definitely a bastard, District manager maybe, who knows: maybe it goes all the way up to the goddamn C-E-O. But they're monsters," he said with a slight growl, "And they deserve to come crashing down."

Christian watched him sadly.

"And… I hate to bring it up. But you owe me." He tilted his head again, eyeing the blonde.

"Oh my God, no. No, you can't play that card now."

"I'm playing that card now. You owe me. And this is what I want from you to make us even. You said anything."

"I didn't think I would have to make the stipulation of anything _legal,_ Will—"

"Please."

Everyone went silent again. William's eyes had since softened and drained Christian's resistance. The dark-headed man even put his hands together in beseeching. Eevee had laid his ears back, still snuggled to Katy's chest. And finally Christian sighed. He turned a circle and pulled his own hair down over his eyes, then let the curls spring back up again. "… So, what are we gonna do with the employee whose keycard we take."

William's stance loosened a little and he lifted his chin. "I'll think about it." Now he took his turn walking to the door. He stepped out and went down the hall. Christian dropped his head backwards and stared at the ceiling, muttering curses to himself before he followed the man. And Katy filed out behind him.

Now they both trailed after William into the streets again. The sun was setting and Katy's stomach was growling so loud she was sure passersby could hear. She hoped William was leading them to a lunch spot. Luckily, it seemed Ralts was on the same wavelength. She tapped William's shoulder and lightly tugged on a lock of his hair to get his attention. When he mumbled at her, she pointed to a hotdog stand. "That's what you want?" he said to the Pokémon beside his head. She squeaked something in reply and nodded. "All right then." Katy smiled and stood in line behind William while he tried to order a hot dog according to what the Ralts was pointing at and attempting to interpret her wants.

"When did he get a Ralts?" asked Christian.

"She was in Taron's apartment," Katy said, "She's been attached to him ever since. I think she likes him a lot," she giggled.

"She ought to. He's got a Special Ability." Christian pulled out his wallet to see how much money he had.

Katy blinked. "He _does?"_

"Yeah, he does. One helluva perk, too. Not that it does him a whole lot of good outside of fighting."

"What is it?" Katy turned to him while Ralts waved her little white hands in protest when William offered her relish.

"It's almost like two things: he can feel when he's about to be attacked. And he can dodge it. And he can copy physical attacks. Pretty cool, huh?"

Katy looked to the man, amazed someone so extraordinary was standing in front of her ordering a hotdog. "That's incredible." That's when she recalled what she'd been thinking about before. "How do you and he know each other?"

"Oh! I ran into him for a battle a few years ago, crossed him at a Pokémon Center and challenged him. His Charizard was _so_ strong and _so_ cool and I just _had_ to battle him again. And again. And again. My guys haven't been able to beat his dragon yet!" He smiled a big, happy grin. "But one day! One day, I'll get him. Him and Ripley."

"I noticed you didn't record the battle or transfer a reward," said Katy.

"Yeah, I don't much battle for Points—not against him anyway. I just do it for fun."

"So, that's it? You just met him in a battle one day and you… follow him?"

Christian gave a belly laugh. "Hahaha! I don't mean to! You wouldn't believe how often we happen across each other though! It's kinda spooky! Like our paths are intertwined or something." He wiggled his fingers in a paranormal gesture.

Katy giggled. "What happened that you owe him?"

The blonde clammed up quick. "Er—haha. That's a bit of a long story. Probably best saved for being told over hotdogs!" He stepped up next in line and rubbed his hands together eagerly.

She watched Christian fight with himself to decide what he wanted on his hotdog then looked to William who was holding two hotdogs, one for himself, and one he held in front of the Ralts on his shoulder. The Pokémon reached forth and carefully held the bun before she leaned forward and opened her mouth as wide as it would go (which wasn't wide at all) and took a bite directly out of the middle, smearing mustard all over her face. Katy smirked and looked down to the Eevee still nestled in her hug. "What do you say: are you ready for a hotdog?"

"Irrooh!"


	10. Partners In Crime

**Partners In Crime**

William and Christian ended up buying hotdogs for each member of their team, but Katy opted not to. She let her team rest in their Poké Balls in their hyper sleep state. She instead sat happily with William's Eevee, eager to meet the rest of Christian's team.

He had a Rapidash named Blitz who turned his nose up at a hotdog. That made sense. Did horses care for processed meat? But his dainty Ninetales, Vixen, also chose to feast on kibble instead. Ninetales were carnivores, but again, processed meat probably was not her speed. Blitz was feisty to say the least. He tossed his head and bucked and jumped at everything, mane flaring to life each time with intense heat. He didn't seem to care a whole lot for Christian. Or anyone for that matter. But Vixen was friendly and sweet. Her fur was the shiniest Katy had ever seen on a Ninetales. It practically glistened. She knew advanced years made this species of Pokémon have an incredible luster to their coat. "How old is Vixen?" she asked.

"Old! Old, old," Christian said, pouring out some Pokémon kibble for his kitsune. "My dad gave her to me. And his mom before him, and her mom before her—she's over two hundred!"

Katy smiled and gasped as she pet along the Ninetales' soft neck mane. "Wow. She's so perfect!"

"She's my girl! The only one that would ever have me!" He, too, patted her on the head and the gentle being began to eat carefully.

"Why don't you ever send her out into battle with Ripley?" said William. His Charizard swallowed her second hotdog.

"Ah, she not much of a fighter," Christian replied. "Don't get me wrong; she's tough! But she's too gentle to have fun with conflict. Aren't you, Vixie?" He addressed his Pokémon in a baby-ish tone. And the Ninetales made some noise of agreement into her food.

"A Pokémon that old and that experienced is the kind Ripley wants to have at," William nodded to the Ninetales. His Charizard chuffed.

"Maybe one day. After Caesar and Brutus kick her butt." Christian winked.

"Well, why don't you try training that one." William pointed to the unruly Rapidash who had begun tearing up grass and eating it, its lips turning it brittle and crunchy.

"Haha… He's, uh… not ready for training against you, Will." Christian rubbed the back of his neck, but he kept his grin.

"He's not ready for training against _anyone."_

"He's not quite broke yet, but he'll get there. He just… works on his own time is all. Isn't that right, Blitz buddy?" Christian reached to pet the horse's flank.

Blitz snorted and stomped, shuffling away.

Christian pursed his lips and ran his hand through his hair. He cleared his throat and looked to Katy. "What about you? You want to evolve your Eevee?"

"Oh, he's not mine. He's William's," Katy smiled.

Christian gasped and performed a full body pivot to the dark-headed man, a cartoonish grin plastered on his face. "Well, holy hashtag PogChamp." When William didn't look up, Christian swept up behind him and gripped his shoulders and leaned down next to his ear. "He is… the sweetest, cutest, fluffiest, cuddliest—"

"Shut up, I know."

Christian cackled and nearly fell over laughing. Katy laughed too. "Who could deny?"

"That's his problem; he's too sweet, too cute, too fluffy, and WAY too cuddly."

Eevee laid his ears back but only for a moment, like he was happier that his trainer was addressing him.

"Don't be mean to him!" Katy hugged the fluff closer. "Maybe he doesn't want to battle."

"Well, I want a Flareon that can keep up with the rest of my team. Either he'll be that Pokémon or he won't." William finished off his hotdog and Ralts nodded adamantly, as if she morally agreed with his statement.

Katy scratched the top of the Eevee's head. "He'll be exactly who he's meant to be. Won't you, boy?"

"Broo!"

Katy looked up and shook her head to flick her curly hair out of her face. "Okay, so I have to know. Why does Christian owe you, William?"

"I saved him from getting his ass handed to him," he muttered, tapping his trainer's brace.

Katy tilted her head a bit. "Scenario?"

The blonde sighed and moved around the picnic table. "So, there's these Deviant gangsters, right? They don't use Pokémon to fight, they use their Abilities, because they're like Nines, every single one of them, like seven of them." He shifted his weight. "So, Caesar thinks it's a good idea to play with them? He sees them breakdancing on some cardboard so he jumps in and starts dancing, burns up the cardboard. Well, they weren't too happy with that. They had some choice words for me."

"And genius decides to run his mouth, tell them he can beat them in a fight," says William.

"Except they think I mean Deviant fight, not Pokémon fight."

"And Blondie here is maybe a Six."

"No match."

"Not at all."

"And William happened to be nearby while I was trying to back out of it when they weren't having it. And he kicked their asses. Single-handedly."

"And I got myself on their shit list now thanks to that scrap."

"So, I figured I really owed him for that. And for some reason Will thinks it's fair to invoke his even Stevens with a completely illegal matter that could get me thrown in jail."

"It's absolutely fair." William sat forward. "You don't think I could get thrown in jail getting mixed up with that bunch? Besides, I put my life at stake for you, asshole. The least you can do is get your gorilla to filch a card for a few minutes."

"He's a _monkey_ ," Christian harshly corrected.

"Whatever," mumbled William, still tapping his brace.

Katy held back a grin as she looked between them. "Well, no one is getting thrown in jail. We'll make this a piece of cake. The only things we need to come up with is a camera to see what Houdini sees, something that won't be noticeable, and a way for him to hear us."

"What about those cameras they rig to Pokémon for fight recordings and stuff? Would those work?" asked Christian.

"Well, they're definitely light enough, but are they discreet?"

"I don't know; let's look." Christian sat down and tapped his brace.

"Found it," said William. He flicked his fingers across the screen, first toward Katy, then toward Christian. Both of them received a link in a message on their braces. They opened them and found an online photo of a camera that would work perfectly. It was a tiny little square, small enough to rig on the collar of a shirt. "It comes with a sound system and headgear, too."

"Wow, that's awesome," said Katy, checking out the reviews.

"It's three hundred and twenty-nine dollars, though."

"I got enough Points to transfer for it," William muttered.

Katy looked up at him. "Oh, no, let me pay for some of it—"

"Yeah, we're in on this, too. Let us help with the expenses," Christian said, surprising Katy a little. To be so against the plan, he was quick to offer up finances.

"No, I've got it. It's my idea."

"I think it might actually have been my idea," Katy said quietly.

"Forget it, I got it. I already ordered it anyway."

Katy tapped on her brace again. "Well, here, let me transfer you some Points—"

"Don't. It's fine," William said evenly but sturdily.

Katy softly smiled and let her arms rest again. "Thanks."

He grunted some wordless reply.

It was quiet again until Christian spoke up. "I'm really sorry they killed your Houndoom."

Katy watched William. He hadn't looked up from his brace yet. "Thanks," he said.

She pursed her lips. "… So, what you did to upset the applecart was after you quit?"

He looked at her.

"When you dropped more than a feather."

His eyebrows flicked like he understood and he looked back to his brace. "Yes. And I wouldn't have done anything if they hadn't killed Victor. They brought it upon themselves."

Christian crossed his arms over the picnic table, Vixen resting her head in his lap. "What did you do?"

He shook his head.

"Ah, come on… You can tell us. We're partners in crime now," he grinned.

William sighed and he still kept his eyes on his brace's screen. "… Remember that explosion that took out like their whole west wing."

Holy shit.

Christian's eyes popped. "You didn't." When he didn't reply, Christian spoke again. "People died in that explosion."

"Yeah they did," he said.

Now Katy closed her mouth. He murdered them. At least thirteen of them. It was several years ago when she was still in high school and Katy couldn't accurately recall the body count. Before she said something, William kept talking.

"And no, not all of them were to blame for what was going on there." He lifted his eyes to Christian and they were dully half-lidded. "And that's why I don't like to talk about it."

Now Christian closed his mouth, too. Damn. That was heavy. Katy couldn't imagine bearing such a thing on her conscience, but her empathetic nature and need to comfort took over. "You didn't know who would get hurt," she said, only hearing the stupidity of her words after they came out. It kept her from finishing her statement by saying it wasn't his fault. Because it absolutely was.

"Not an excuse," he responded, turning the screen on his brace off. "It's something I have to live with. Don't mess with it." He stood up and stretched, popping his back in a way it was audible from where Katy sat. And he dug for a Poké Ball from his bag again then tossed it into the clearing where his Magmar appeared and turned his lazy head to his trainer. The man shed his shirt on his way to his teammate.

Christian looked to Katy and whispered. "Holy shit."

"I know," she whispered back.

The blonde sighed and put his chin in his hand, looking after William. "But you know what? I still feel sorry for him about it."

"Yeah." Katy watched his hands ignite in the distance. "Me, too."


	11. Nature's Little Glitch

**Nature's Little Glitch**

When nighttime came, Katy slept like the dead. Something about the day had just been so exhausting. It could have been the fact that she'd interacted with people way more in the past four days than she had in years. Or it could be the emotional toll.

Katy had a gift that was also a curse. She felt everything. _Everything._ Her parents misunderstood. They couldn't fathom why she cared so much. And their solution was to tell her to stop worrying about other people so much. If only it were that easy. Katy would probably give an arm and a leg to have a switch for her empathy that she could turn off whenever she wanted. Those who understood (and there were few) likened her to a Ralts or any of its evolved forms, which made her happy in a way. Especially now that a Ralts was joining their party, even if she was inseparable from William. But though Katy slept all through the night, her dreams were plagued with hurt from Christian losing his friend, hurt for William losing his Houndoom, and hurt for both William and his victims in the explosion he caused. She wanted to hate him for what he did. But he had quickly shut down any pity for himself, and that was precisely the reason why she couldn't hate him if she tried. He knew what he did and he took full responsibility for it, though he had apparently not turned himself in to the police for his crime. If he had, he certainly would not be here now. He'd get at least thirty-five years in the state pen for what he'd done. She supposed that was the only thing he wasn't ready to face. And she hoped he never had to.

She awoke to Christian cursing under his breath and a foreign warmth against one side of her body and crisp cold as a stark contrast on her other side. Katy rubbed her eyes and turned over to see Christian putting a fire together. She watched sleepily as flames licked his knuckles and coated his fingers in their silky heat. It was so beautiful to witness something so dangerous caressing skin like it was home.

"I didn't mean to wake you up," he whispered, "I just got really cold!"

"It's perfectly fine. Thank you for the fire." Katy yawned and sat up, pulling her sleeping bag around her shoulders and looking to the dark blue sky. Tinges of orange were burning the edges of the canvas that was the horizon. Autumn was here. Thank God.

A squeak came from William's sleeping bag and Katy found Ralts curling herself tightly between William's body and his arm. She must be getting a little chilly too. Katy shuffled over on her hands and knees to tuck William's sleeping bag tighter around him. He had goose bumps on his bare arms. Minding the Ralts, she zipped them both up, leaving room for the Pokémon to breathe. She lingered a moment and watched William sleep. He was an interesting stranger, that was for sure. But she wanted to follow him wherever he went. Even if she looked like a lost puppy, she couldn't think of anywhere she'd rather be. He indubitably had made her life more exciting. What more was there to look forward to by being in his and Christian's company?

"Look," the blonde whispered behind her. She turned around to see a Deerling and a Sawsbuck venturing out into the tall grass from the forest. The Sawsbuck froze and turned its ears toward the people, eyes locked on them. Christian gently waved by bending his fingers. The deer stared for another second then continued on their trek through the field. "He's got his fall on," Christian said, noting the changing leaves growing from the Sawsbuck's antlers.

"He's beautiful," said Katy before moving back to her spot and hugging her legs.

Christian watched them walk away. "I saw a shiny one."

Katy looked at him, her eyes popping. "You did not. A Sawsbuck?"

"No, a Deerling. And yes I did!"

"What did it look like?"

Christian's voice turned soft, like he were recalling the most relaxing day he'd ever had. "White as snow."

"Did you try to catch it?"

"Of course I tried to catch it! But it got away. Fast little buggers," he mumbled the last part. "But in the end, I was glad I didn't."

"Why? There's only, like, thirty people in the whole world who currently have a shiny Pokémon."

He sighed, as if what he were about to say he hadn't fully agreed with yet. "I figured… it's nature's little glitch. It should probably stay there. Where it belongs."

Katy tilted her head, scooting closer to the fire. "You know, its discoloration can make it a target. Especially a Deerling. You could have protected it if you were able to catch it. It'd be like… if that guy Brandon Hutchinson never caught that shiny Weedle, it surely would have been picked off by a predator."

"Well, good for him." Christian watched the deer walk out of sight. "It just feels like I'd be stealing. Nature creates this rare gem by accident and you snatch it."

She rested her chin on her knees. "I like to think of it as saving them."

He grinned and looked at her. "You want to save everyone, don't you."

Something in her stomach shivered. "How would you know that?"

"I don't have to know you to see you want to fix people. You said enough to Will, you defended his Eevee readily. And I happen to think you'd do that for anyone."

She blinked. "… Observant, aren't we?"

"I try!"

"Well, you know what I think of you?"

"What." He turned to her, eager to hear her statement.

"I think you're really happy and outgoing and carefree for a reason. Like you haven't always been this way. Or if you have it's to… compensate for something else."

He put his chin in his hand, still grinning. "Compensating for what?"

Katy shrugged. "I don't know. Trauma. Low self-esteem. Illness."

His smile stretched wider as he subtly nodded at her, apparently impressed. "And you know that because…?"

"I've seen it before."

"From yourself?"

She shrugged again, closing her mouth.

He laughed. "I like you. You're fun to pick at. I can't do that with Will."

"No, I imagine not."

They chuckled and a silence followed. The sky had turned purple and the stars had begun to disappear. Christian spoke up again. "So. Of the three you mentioned… Which do you think is my problem?"

Katy looked at him. She narrowed her eyes and studied him for a moment. "Contestant chooses… curtain number two."

Christian plunged his fist up into the air. "Ding ding ding!" he whispered, so as to not wake William.

Katy laughed but she was sure to assume a gentle expression. "I'm so sorry. If it means anything, you seem very well together, and like you know what you're doing. And I think you're probably a really great guy who has always done his best… and it's always been enough."

He huffed through his nose and looked down. Even in the dim lighting, Katy could tell he was blushing. "Thank you. That means a lot."

"You're welcome," she said quietly, resting her cheek on her knee. And together they watched the sun rise.


End file.
